So....we move in, set up camp and proceed with "refreshments" (read cocktails). While Mutha and I check out the accomodations Harv breaks out the grinds.....

"What a deal!" I say to Mutha - 2 bedrooms, a full bath with shower, a complete kitchen with pots/pans/dishes/utensils and a comfy living room with small electric space heater - some of the cabins even have fireplaces I'm told - which at the 6500 foot level are damn well necessary, as the temperature dropped into the mid 30's that night. All this fer SIX BUCKS a head, per night!!!

After dinner (and quite a few "refreshments" ;) we take a walk around the park and the cabins - in the then 40 degF air..... After living in the tropics fer 5 years - 40 is Coooold.... like what zero used to feel like back home in New Hampshire! The view of the night sky is something pretty spectacular up on The Saddle. There was just enough of a moon to show the sillouette of the mountains and it was very still - not a sound - the smell of pine in the air....made it seem like we were in, not Hawai`i - but the Rockies somewhere. Quite a contrast from the balmy breezes on the palm lined beaches down at sea-level and a much welcomed break from the bustle of the big city in Honolulu........

Having always been a winter person and skiing since Mutha lugged me around fer the first 9 months of my life - the summer to me was the "off season" - that is until I started windsurfing in '81 - then there was no off-season - the thought of being here in the middle of the Pacific - In The Tropics - and about to ski my first volcano was a real trip. This is something that every snow-sport type ought to experience, at least once...

Anyway....The next morning we inhale a huge breakfast and nursing a bit of "altitude sickness" from the "refreshments" the night before, take a look around the camp.

Several types of pines and other imported species make the place resemble parts of New Hampshire or Colorado and we can see a snow covered Mauna Loa about 15 miles over. We're too close to the foot of Mauna Kea, so still don't see what we hope to be plenty of white stuff at the top.

Now, you were wondering why a guy would bring his mother along on an adventure trip like this?......

To drive the Jeep,
of course!... ;)

aka
"The 4-wheel-drive gondola"